Written Answers Thursday 23 July 2009

Scottish Executive

Dentistry

Marlyn Glen (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive how many dental students at (a) the University of Dundee and (b) the University of Glasgow who received a dental bursary in their final year of study are now in vocational training in Scotland, broken down by NHS board.

Shona Robison: The information requested is shown in the following table:

  

NHS Board
Dundee Dental School
Glasgow Dental School


Ayrshire and Arran
0
12


Borders
0
0


Dumfries and Galloway
0
0


Fife
5
0


Forth Valley
3
3


Grampian
7
3


Greater Glasgow and Clyde
4
18


Highland
4
5


Lanarkshire
2
13


Lothian
7
7


Orkney
1
0


Shetland
1
0


Tayside
15
0


Western Isles
0
1


Total
49
62

Employment

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether the number of childminders per 1,000 children aged 0-14 in each local authority area reflects levels of unemployment or deprivation.

Adam Ingram: It is for local authorities and local private and voluntary sector providers to design and deliver childcare services based on local need and priorities. There are no national criteria which require local providers to link service provision to levels of unemployment and deprivation.

Health

Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive when the Stoma National Review Group will report on the arrangements introduced in April 2006 for the provision of stoma care appliances to patients in the community.

Shona Robison: Ministers will, over the summer, consider when conclusions can be drawn from the meetings of the Stoma National Review Group and other recent meetings with stakeholders. The work of the National Review Group will inform the future arrangements for the provision of stoma care appliances to patients in the community.

  Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has received from patients’ groups on the standards of stoma care service.

Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will consult stoma patients on the impact of changes to the stoma care service that came into effect in April 2006 in respect of the provision of stoma care appliances to patients in the community.

Shona Robison: Three patients’ representative groups (the Colostomy Association, IA and Urostomy Association) are members of the Stoma National Review Group and have attended all seven meetings of the group. I met with the patients’ groups on 20 August 2008 and they met with officials on 30   April 2009 to discuss the arrangements for the provision of stoma care appliances. Following this they wrote to officials to confirm their key issues.

Health

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive which recommendations of Delivering for Remote and Rural Healthcare: The Final Report of the Remote and Rural Workstream have been implemented and which are still to be implemented.

Nicola Sturgeon: The Remote and Rural Implementation Group is responsible for monitoring implementation of Delivering for Remote and Rural Healthcare . Six-monthly reports are published by the North of Scotland Regional Planning Group. The most recent report, dated June 2009, can be found at www.nospg.nhsscotland.com .

  Irene Oldfather (Cunninghame South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers the HC1 NHS Low Income Scheme claim form to be service friendly.

Irene Oldfather (Cunninghame South) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will undertake a review of the HC1 NHS Low Income Scheme claim form to make it more service friendly.

Shona Robison: The NHS Low Income Scheme (LIS) is administered by the Business Services Authority (BSA), a special health authority, on behalf of the health departments in Scotland, England and Wales.

  Anyone can apply for help through LIS and, therefore, the HC1 form is designed to be suitable for all members of the community including, for example, people in full-time employment, pensioners and students.

  The form was designed with the applicant in mind, and applicants are required to answer only those questions and sections which relate to them. The form was awarded the Crystal Mark, accredited by the Plain English Campaign, in March 2007, and in the BSA’s most recent customer survey (2008) the user-friendliness of the form scored 8.5.

  The form gathers relevant information in an order that supports the BSA’s claims registration system (CRS) and claims calculator. This aids the assessment process and helps to improve the speed and accuracy of the decisions.

  However, you may be interested to know that officials are currently in the process of reviewing the form to amend a small number of references which are no longer relevant to applicants from Scotland. We have no plans for a more extensive review.

Higher Education

Malcolm Chisholm (Edinburgh North and Leith) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive which universities and colleges (a) ran out of discretionary funds and (b) asked for additional resources for discretionary funds in the last year for which information is available.

Fiona Hyslop: The Scottish Government has increased investment in student discretionary funds from the £14.04 million it inherited from the last administration (2006-07) to £16.1 million this year (2008-09). This is a rise of 14.6%.

  In academic year 2007-08 the following institutions exhausted the following funds:

  A total of three out of 56 institutions exhausted both their higher education discretionary and childcare funds:

  Barony College,

  Dundee College,

  Reid Kerr College.

  A further three out of 56 institutions exhausted only their higher education discretionary fund allocation:

  Edinburgh’s Telford College,

  John Wheatley College,

  Newbattle Abbey College.

  A further eight institutions out of 56 exhausted only their higher education childcare fund:

  Borders College,

  Glasgow Metropolitan College,

  Oatridge Agricultural College,

  Stow College,

  Glasgow School of Art,

  Heriot Watt University,

  RSAMD,

  Strathclyde University.

  Funds are intended to be spent within the year in which they are allocated, thus providing the maximum sum available to students in each individual year. Any unspent funds are returned for redistribution in the following academic year and are thus returned to the discretionary funds system.

  The vast majority of funds should therefore be exhausted in the academic year for which they are allocated.

  During academic year 2007-08 the following institutions (out of 56) requested additional funds during the in-year redistribution process.

  

Adam Smith College


Cumbernauld College


Cardonald College


Napier University


Motherwell College


Glasgow College of Nautical Studies


James Watt College


University of Abertay Dundee


Stevenson college


Ayr College


Borders College


Central College of Commerce


Oatridge College


Angus College


Glasgow School of Art


Scottish Agricultural College


Forth Valley College


South Lanarkshire College


Coatbridge College


John Wheatley College


UHI


Dundee College


North Glasgow College

Mental Health

Cathy Jamieson (Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to ensure that single outcome agreements include outcomes for mental health.

Shona Robison: It is not the purpose of single outcome agreements (SOAs) to provide a comprehensive description of all services provided by partners within a community planning partnership (CPP). SOAs set out strategic priorities for a local area, described as local outcomes. It is for each CPP to derive its local outcomes which should be drawn from an integrated profile of the social, economic and environmental conditions of the area concerned. In reaching agreement with CPPs on the SOA, the Scottish Government will be looking for evidence that local outcomes reflect an area’s strategic priorities and that they are capable of being linked to one or more of the national outcomes.

  Tackling health inequalities was one of the key areas that the Scottish Government asked to be included in 2009-10 SOA’s.

  Copies of all 32 SOAs for 2009-10 and beyond, which community planning partnerships and the Scottish Government agreed in June 2009, can be obtained via the following link to the Improvement Service website http://www.improvementservice.org.uk/single-outcome-agreements/.

  Cathy Jamieson (Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what action it is taking to address the higher level of mental health problems in deprived communities and what funding has been allocated specifically for this purpose.

Shona Robison: It is the responsibility of the local government and NHS boards to work in partnership and allocate funds from the total financial resources available to them on the basis of local needs, priorities and agreed targets, including the Scottish Government’s key strategic objectives and commitments.

  Spend on mental health services continues to be drawn from record funds allocated to NHS boards and local government overall. Funding is set to rise to record levels with the overall health budget increasing from £10.6 billion in 2008-09 to £11.03 billion in 2009-10. Each health board’s allocation from this budget is based on a formula that includes information about characteristics that influence healthcare needs including deprivation. Local government funding will also rise, from £11.2 billion in 2008-09 to £11.8 billion in 2009-10.

  Equally Well, the report of the Ministerial Task Force on Health Inequalities, recommends that NHS interventions on depression, stress and anxiety should be increasingly targeted at Scotland’s deprived communities and tailored to these communities. It also recommends that the Keep Well health checks should identify depression and anxiety and provide adequate treatment and support within deprived communities.

NHS Waiting Times

Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it considers that the importance of preventative measures to avoid service users or carers reaching crisis point are properly emphasised in the draft national standard eligibility criteria and waiting times guidance.

Shona Robison: The draft guidance states that councils and their partners should consider whether the provision of services or equipment or other interventions might help prevent or reduce the risk of an individual’s needs becoming more intensive. It also asks councils to ensure that they have in place clear arrangements for meeting, managing or reviewing the need of individuals who are not assessed as being at "critical" or "substantial" risk, including provision of preventative or other support services appropriate to the clients’ needs.

  Jackie Baillie (Dumbarton) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive for what reason minimum waiting times for all community care services have not been included in the draft national standard eligibility criteria and waiting times guidance and whether there is a timescale for this to be reviewed.

Shona Robison: The draft guidance proposes that there should be a national standard maximum waiting time for people assessed as being at "critical" or "substantial" risk of six weeks from confirmation of need to delivery of assessed personal and/or nursing care services. Where there are major risks to an individual’s independent living or health and well-being, services will be provided immediately or within approximately one to two weeks of their care needs assessment. Applying the six week target to personal and nursing care services only is intended to allow flexibility for other community care services. For example, major adaptations or specialist equipment may take longer than the six week timescale to deliver.

Pharmacies

Ken Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what contact it has had with pharmaceutical companies regarding their new quota system, also known as direct-to-pharmacy, that limits the availability of certain medicines to community pharmacies.

Shona Robison: A number of pharmaceutical companies have informed the Scottish Government of changes to their distribution systems. These arrangements are a commercial decision for the companies concerned.

  The Scottish Government is working closely with Community Pharmacy Scotland to monitor the effect of these changes on the supply of medicines to patients in Scotland.

  Ken Macintosh (Eastwood) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it is aware of the shortage of certain medicines in community pharmacies as a result of the new quota system, also known as direct-to-pharmacy, introduced by pharmaceutical companies.

Shona Robison: The Scottish Government is aware of the various issues affecting the supply of medicines and has asked Community Pharmacy Scotland to provide details of specific supply problems which community pharmacies are experiencing. We await their response and will continue to monitor the situation.

Prison Service

Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S3W-24828 by Kenny MacAskill on 23 June 2009, how many offender development hours were delivered in each of the last three years, broken down by institution.

Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

  

Establishment
2006-07
2007-08
2008-09


Aberdeen
66,018
75,805
62,038


Barlinnie
189,661
224,362
251,323


Cornton Vale
131,304
172,003
197,304


Dumfries
69,392
69,639
70,607


Edinburgh
173,404
156,521
193,057


Glenochil
159,634
257,477
252,099


Greenock
75,350
76,982
76,228


Inverness
52,372
59,913
66,248


Kilmarnock
146,997
159,018
165,303


Low Moss
51,996
3,624
 


Open Estate
521,172
546,503
448,696


Perth
91,167
111,273
159,507


Peterhead
107,512
114,876
125,592


Polmont
173,555
209,744
238,749


Shotts
109,459
115,148
149,769


Total
2,118,993
2,352,888
2,456,518

Prison Service

John Lamont (Roxburgh and Berwickshire) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what progress has been made in securing suitable sites for the building of (a) HMP Inverclyde and (b) HMP Highlands.

Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

  The Scottish Prison Service, working in conjunction with Highland and Inverclyde Councils, has conducted site search exercises to identify possible sites for the proposed new prisons. Further work is underway to assess the suitability of these sites for the proposed developments.

Sex Offenders

Richard Baker (North East Scotland) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to answer to question S3W-24818 by Kenny MacAskill on 23 June 2009, what the motivational element to encourage further participation of prisoners in appropriate interventions, such as the Sex Offender Treatment Programme, is likely to involve.

Kenny MacAskill: I have asked Mike Ewart, Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, to respond. His response is as follows:

  It is too early in the development of the new Sex Offender Treatment Programme (SOTP) to be prescriptive about what the motivational aspects will be.

  Studies conducted with sex offenders who refuse to participate in SOTPs indicate two main reasons for non-participation: a fear of participation in prisoner programmes and denial of their offence. Therefore, consideration is being given to:

  Involving sex offenders in a preparatory programme early in their sentence, and

  Adapting the style of delivery for the main programme to address some of the issues presented by sex offenders who deny their offence.

  At this stage programme developers are conducting research to establish whether these approaches, which have been used in other jurisdictions, are likely to be effective.

Vaccinations

Dr Richard Simpson (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive whether all girls born after 1 September 1990 and who have left school have been sent a letter about the human papilloma virus (HPV) vaccination.

Shona Robison: No such letter has been sent to all girls nationally. Responsibility for delivery of HPV vaccination locally, including identification and contact with the cohort of older girls who had left school, is a matter for health boards. It is likely that in most cases boards would have contacted this cohort of girls directly by letter or through other means.

  Additionally, the HPV marketing campaign was developed and delivered in such a way to ensure older girls had as much opportunity as possible to find out about the vaccination programme. The marketing campaign meant that information materials about the vaccination were available in locations where older girls were likely to see them. This included community settings, GP surgeries, and educational institutions. The campaign also delivered a series of road shows across Scotland to raise awareness and there was extensive newspaper coverage of the vaccination programme.